Top 7: Twitter fails of 2014

Every year mistakes are made but thanks to social media no one is allowed to forget them. Twitter provides a great sphere for conversation but the more people tweet, the more likely they are to say something wrong.

With social media continuing to grow we look at some of the biggest Twitter mistakes of 2014.

7. New England Patriots racial slur

The American football team enjoyed a great year on Twitter becoming the first NFL team on Twitter to have one million followers.

The team asked users to retweet the message: “”Thanks for helping us become the first NFL team with 1 million followers! #1MillionPatriots”. Doing so generated an automatic tweet showing the team jersey with the retweeter’s username, that was sent from the team’s account.

Unfortunately for the Patriots one user retweeted it with the name ‘@IHATEN******S’. They swiftly deleted the tweet and issued the following apology: “We apologise for the regrettable tweet that went out from our account. Our filtering system failed & we will be more vigilant in the future.”

6. Boston Red Sox’ bad timing

The Baseball team compounded a bad month on Twitter for Boston’s sports clubs. The Red Sox tweeted “So how was everyone’s Monday?” just one minute after a grand jury chose to not indict a white police officer in the death of an unarmed, black 18-year-old.

The tweet was swiftly deleted from their account and an apology was issued conceding that the tweet was “ill-timed”. The Red Sox had been preparing to announce the free agent signings of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez.

5. Paul George defends Ray Rice

NBA star Paul George landed himself in hot water after defending NFL player Ray Rice. The American Footballer was suspended by the NFL after a video emerged of him hitting his wife and knocking her unconscious.

He then proceeded to defend his original tweet before writing a final tweet issuing an apology claiming that his “intent was not to downplay the situation.”

4. CNN kill Pele

Pele had not enjoyed the best of years health-wise. The Brazil legend recently left hospital after surgery to remove kidney stones and a urinary tract infection.

The tweet was deleted and it was followed up with confirmation from Pele’s representative that a the former striker was “alive and very well.”

3. Spurs mock Liverpool

Liverpool had the title in their hands last season and looked good at 3-0 up but threw it away in the final minutes and drew 3-3.

The “brutal but very funny” tweet lasted eight minutes online before being deleted and had a video attached which showed Steven Gerrard giving a motivational team talk, followed by his slip against Chelsea, Dwight Gayle’s equalising goal and then Tony Pulis laughing in a previous interview.

Spurs apologised claiming that their account had been hacked but not before several users had screenshotted the tweet and outraged many Liverpool fans.

2. Yaya Toure defends his agent in birthday cake drama

The Manchester City midfielder was linked with a move away from the Etihad in a bizarre fiasco. His agent Dimitri Seluk claimed that the midfielder wanted a transfer because no one shook his hand on his birthday as they were too busy celebrating the title.

Toure changed his mind however: “Everything Dimitri said is true. He speaks for me. I will explain after the World Cup.”

1. West Brom mock Marouane Fellaini

The Baggies had reason to be cheerful, at half-time they were 1-0 up against Manchester United. Marouane Fellaini came on as a substitute and the home side tweeted: “Fellaini has now taken his tracksuit off, fortunately he has a Man Utd strip on underneath.”

The tweet received a severe backlash but Fellaini left the side feeling red-faced, within two minutes of being on the pitch he smashed a shot into the top corner for his first United goal.

West Brom tried to clear up by claiming that they were making a joke about the midfielder being naked under his tracksuit, probably not worth it.

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